When I arrived back in Portugal from Ireland last month, I touched down in Faro International Airport on the Algarve…
I passed through the security check, grabbed my case from the carousel and slipped into a waiting taxi.
“Pine Cliffs,” I told the driver, and off we zoomed along a four-lane highway…
Thirty minutes later I was checking in to my hotel. And five minutes after that I was looking out over some of the most stunning cliffs in Europe.
Door to door from my home in Ireland, it took all of five hours.
At the same time, thousands more people streamed in from the U.K., France, the Netherlands, and Germany, all heading to their respective hotels and vacation rentals spread out along the coast.
If asked, most people will tell you that they’ve come to the Algarve for the postcard-perfect beaches. The Americans you’ll meet here will say it reminds them of how Southern California used to be. For the Northern Europeans, it’s to get some much-needed sun before they settle in to a cold and dark winter.
Secret cliff-lined coves…vast swathes of warm golden sand…world-class golf…thermal springs…and historic old towns. The Algarve has it all.
But despite what the tourists tell you, none of that is the real reason they’ve come.
In fact, I’d wager that most of them don’t really know why they came to the Algarve…over say, Spain’s Cíes Islands; Cala Gonone in Sardinia; or Vanua Levu, Fiji.
But I do…
I know because for almost two decades I’ve been a keen observer of why some destinations become tourist meccas while others never take off. And if you were paying attention to the start of this e-letter, you’d know it too.
It’s fundamental to my real estate investment strategy, and by understanding it, by studying it, I’ve learned how to profit immensely from it.
It’s one of the reasons why I continue to come back to the Algarve.
You see, the best and most important investment strategy I use is to follow a Path of Progress.
If you’re a regular reader of this e-letter you’ll have heard me talk about this many times before. But as it’s such a huge part of my investment strategy, and one I think all serious international real estate investors should know about, I’m going to talk a bit about it today.
To put it simply, a “Path of Progress” is any kind of development or demographic shift that could cause real estate prices to rise in a specific location.
It might be a destination that’s about to open up thanks to new roads, airports, or bridges. It might be the arrival of a major new employer driving inward migration…a luxury resort drawing in well-heeled tourists…or even a change in zoning and permitting that makes it easier to develop new projects.
By identifying a market at the start of (or still undergoing) a Path of Progress, you can profit handsomely on your real estate buy.
What you read at the start of this e-letter was itself the result of a Path of Progress—Faro’s international airport, the four-lane highway that whisked me to my accommodation, and the five-star hotel within a short drive.
That’s the reason millions of people come to the Algarve each year.
Sure, it’s a very special place. There are few beach destinations in the world as attractive. But convenience and ease are what sell bookings and attract airlines…and ultimately, that’s what changes a destination from a place I love to visit to a place I’m eager to invest…
The Algarve has benefited significantly from a Path of Progress that has been driving development here for decades…and if you know where to look, there are still corners of this region benefiting from it. Places where you can buy great value real estate that’s undergoing rapid appreciation, with the potential to capture high rental yields too.
Members of my Real Estate Trend Alert group who bought in a historic town in the Algarve where I identified strong opportunity have already done extremely well. For instance, one member bought two condos as investment properties about five years ago for approximately €430,000 each. They rented them both, bringing in an average of about €30,000 (a 7% gross yield) a year each and recently sold one for €650,000. Those are some serious gains…
But Portugal isn’t the only place on my beat where the Path of Progress has handed RETA members big gains.
Tulum, on Mexico’s Riviera Maya, is another great example of a Path of Progress play.
For many years, there was only one road leading to Tulum’s stunning beach, which is several miles from the main town. And while Tulum has grown in magnitudes, attracting millions of visitors each year, the capacity of the road has been twiddling. On weekends and holidays, traffic backs up for miles.
But now, with a new road, a new access to the beach has opened up. It’s the next phase in a Path of Progress that’s set to supercharge potential gains for real estate investors.
And anyone sitting on real estate along this stretch is set to do exceptionally well.
That’s exactly the position members of my Real Estate Trend Alert group have found themselves in.
Last October, members bought two-bed, two-bath condos here, in a community called Natal, from $143,000. When I launched the deal last year, I explained that we shouldn’t buy on the basis that this road will connect with the beach. For the simple reason that we didn’t need to. Our opportunity was already in a prime location, an area on a trajectory as the high-end commercial area of Tulum. On top of that, we had an incredibly low RETA-only price. I figured these will be worth $190,000 three years after delivery.
Now, with the new road reaching all the way to the beach, it puts these condos within easy reach of one of the most desirable beaches in the world, adding fuel to the already booming rental demand…and making my original prediction look super conservative.
It may just look like an ordinary road…but that road is one of the biggest things to hit Tulum in years.
I have lots more to say about this very successful investment strategy (including much more detail on the Paths of Progress in the Algarve, Tulum, and 3 other locations)…more than I can put in this email. So I’m offering you a free copy of my report: My Number One Strategy for Locking in Incredible Income Potential.
In it, I outline my strategy, and the Path of Progress opportunities in 5 locations on my international real estate beat.
All you have to do is click below and get reading:
***My Number One Strategy for Locking in Incredible Income Potential***
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